The National Ballet of Canada’s decision to mount a double-bill comprised of artistic director James Kudelka’s Désir and Stanton Welch’s adaptation of Madame Butterfly produced an interesting result-though neither ballet proved particularly stunning, Désir came out on top simply by virtue of incorporating more ‘dance.’
Although the project was certainly ambitious, Stanton Welch’s two-act translation of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly into ballet does not succeed in capturing the attention generated by its operatic counterpart. Welch turns the tragic cross-cultural love story into a drawn-out tale that involves more walking about than dancing-quite a surprise coming from a man with a dance career as illustrious as his. The effect was a cautious performance that lacked any passion except in the more obvious moments, which consisted of much throwing of the hands and backward thrusts of the head.
The ornamental set, while dramatic, over-compensated for the lack of excitement and drowned out the dancers. The multitude of dancers provided their own foible by overcrowding the stage, at once detracting from the performance of the protagonists and confusing the plot. Despite the choreography of the piece, some of the dancers certainly deserve praise: Sonia Rodriguez portrayed a courageous but frail Butterfly, and Je-an Salas, playing Butterfly’s faithful servant and companion Suzuki, was the perfect picture of compassion, tenderly reflecting her mistress’s suffering.
What seemed a long-winded account of love’s struggles in Welch’s work was made even more so by the comparatively vivacious depiction of the same in Désir, which preceded Butterfly. Where Welch’s choreography was repetitive and earth-bound, Kudelka’s lifted the dancers into the air in writhing agony or angelic delicacy. Featuring three principal couples and a corps of eight, it depicted the many-sided nature of love. Each couple’s performance was distinct, but the shining stars were by far Nehemiah Kish and Tanya Howard in their portrayal of idyllic romance-Kish absolutely adored Howard, taking such obsessive care of her that he even placed her well-turned feet lovingly upon the ground whenever she wished to lower them.
The one fault of the performance was not in the choreography, but its execution. While the principal couples were engaging, the corps and group performances were at times out of sync, undermining the flow of the choreography. The dancers seemed to be striving to distinguish themselves from the group, resulting in a performance that was unfortunately off.
Double-handers are a tricky proposition at the best of times-full points to the National Ballet for presenting two very distinct works, but perhaps next time, stronger material is in order.
